The #RevolutionNow convener insisted that there would not be peace and progress in Nigeria without justice.
The candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, Omoyele Sowore has renewed the call for the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The #RevolutionNow convener insisted that there would not be peace and progress in Nigeria without justice.
Kanu has been in detention since June 2021 after the regime of former President Muhammadu Buhari in collaboration with the Kenyan government kidnapped him in Kenya and renditioned him to Nigeria in violation of national and international laws and treaties.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has insisted that despite the illegality, and when it accepted that it was wrong for the military to have invaded Kanu's residence while he was on bail,Kanu must face trial.
But speaking at a symposium in commemoration of the late civil rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, who died on September 5, 2009, Sowore decried the high level of impunity among civilian governments in Nigeria, which he described as a grave threat to the unity of the country.
He stressed that without justice, there is no way for Nigeria to have peace and progress.
The activist added that many Nigerians have lost hope in the country, adding that the majority of citizens had mentally seceded from Nigeria.
“If an aeroplane were to be sent to Nigeria today and say who wants to leave, nobody will be left including lawyers in this room,” he said.
He continued, "It is our impunity that led us to where we are and I will say, ‘Lawyers, you have contributed to that as well’. We cannot talk about resolving our problems in Nigeria today without talking of impunity that put people like Nnamdi Kanu in jail because like everybody else, he was tired of Nigeria.
"There is nobody who is not tired of this Nigeria except probably me because I am the only person who travelled abroad and came back and carried myself back to come and be detained in Nigeria for four years now.”
"Many Nigerian youths are tired. Without resolving the issue of justice, natural justice, you can never have peace and progress in this country," he maintained.
He, however, stated that “we can never have liberation without revolution”. According to him, the reorganisation of Nigeria is needed to solve the mounting challenges threatening the unity of the country.
Speaking about his life struggle for a better Nigeria, the #RevolutionNow activist stated unequivocally that "the military was so kinder to me when they were in power than the civilian regime."
He regretted that he "was kidnapped from a high court in Abuja in front of a judge and the judge ran away, her wig was in the air”.
He lamented how the personal bodyguard to the judge was saying while running, “wait for me," at the Federal High Court, noting that it showed how bad the impunity in the country had deepened under civilian administration.
Sowore also narrated his experience with Fawehinmi during his activism days.
He said, “Before I left Nigeria in 1999, I was arrested in 1998 by the University of Lagos or leading a protest against the military government at the NUGA Games. I had already graduated at that point but I still go back to the campus to cause trouble.
“So when I was arrested, I was taken before a magistrate court in Ebute Metta. Their goal was to detain me till the games were over and they succeeded but something happened that I could never forget.”
Narrating how Fawehinmi another legal practitioner Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN) came through for him, he said, “And it was time for me to be charged, they accused me of conduct likely to disturb public peace and the judge hurriedly said, ‘Yes, yes, please detain him, send him to prison’. And Gani Fawehinmi sent somebody to Ebun that he should tell them that you cannot charge somebody for disturbing public peace at a stadium.
“You cannot believe that the magistrate did not know this, that at a public theatre and a stadium, you cannot disturb public peace because public peace is constantly being disturbed in those places.”